Articles by: Gil Smart

This week we’re sharing an article by friend and mentor Karl Wickstrom, Founder/Editor in Chief of Florida Sportsman Magazine, and long-time champion of healthy waterways. Karl’s article picks up where last week’s newsletter left off: The debate is over, Lake…

Last week, and three years running now, Lake Okeechobee was covered in blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria. In 2015 and 2016, it turned extremely toxic. In 2017, it will likely do the same.  Fortunately, initial FDEP test results have not detected toxins in…

It’s hard to fire the truth. SFWMD executive director Pete Antonacci made headlines this week threatening to dismiss the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) from collaborating on Everglades restoration. Why? Because NAS has been telling embarrassing truths since its December report on the project, including…

Sugarcane growers added to the failed legacy of “shared adversity” with their role in June’s Everglades flood. But is it realistic to expect the industry to voluntarily sacrifice to protect wildlife or tourism or even public safety? Today the sugar industry…

Did sugarcane growers flood the Everglades last week? Few reporters seemed curious about how much of the wildlife emergency in their headlines was preventable. No one asked what it cost to keep fields dry in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA).…

Florida Bay had another bad week. This video of the latest fish kill was taken on Monday at the marina in Flamingo. Lake O had a bad week, too. As one expert reported: “When I see over 200 ppb [phosphorus] going out of STAs–five…

By Alan Farago Remember how Big Sugar said the problem in Florida’s estuaries was septic tanks adjacent to the Indian River? They say the same about the mercury problem in the Everglades and Florida waterways: it’s someone else’s fault. Not of…

By Allie Preston Michigan Health officials are up against manslaughter charges after knowingly withholding information from the public about contaminated water and potential effects on human health. Anybody else feel like they’re in the Twilight Zone? The ACLU says the…

Americans pay billions to help sugar growers buy politicians. We should stop. The US sugar program is a sprawling, complex federal handout that too few people know about. As a result, it quietly skates by, largely unquestioned, leaving a trail of destruction…